Will Suicide End the Inquiry Again?

by Mary

Glenn started off the questions about how fast the government was closing the Anthrax Investigation after the unfortunate suicide of Bruce E. Ivins, now exposed as the chief suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks. As Glenn wrote today, the leaks to various news organizations and the resulting stories are incoherent and are not inclined to put at rest all the questions that surround this chapter of our post-9/11 madness. Rather than put the matter to bed, the inconsistency of the stories, the lack of serious evidence, and the lack of credibility of the participants just increases the questions and makes sure that this episode will not be allowed to disappear into the past.

It reminds me of one other unfortunate suicide that seemed to put matters to rest on the actions of the government of Tony Blair. For those who followed the Hutton Report, the suicide of Dr. David Kelly just before he was scheduled to appear before the panel effectively blocked inquiries into the actions of the Blair administration and how they aided and abetted the Bush administration with lying our countries into invading Iraq. Here is what I posted on this sad affair while the Hutton Inquiry was going on:

As the story unfolds, it seems increasingly clear that Dr. Kelly was being used by the government to make the BBC back down on their story, and that the government was behind his being revealed as Gilligan's source. During the time he was preparing to testify in the original inquiry, he was also quite soundly reprimanded by his superiors in the Ministry of Defense and knew that he might lose his job or worse.

One of the most complete reports about Dr Kelly's sad death and the power struggle between the BBC and Downing Street was published in Sunday's Guardian and I recommend it for an indepth look at this affair.

The Hutton Inquiry ended with a whitewash of the Blair government and their part in instigating the war on Iraq. But for those who followed the inquiry, evidence had been given that Dr. Kelly had been part of the propaganda network helping create the case for war (see here and here). And when we finally saw the State Street memos, our doubts about the Blair government were reinforced.

As Glenn noted, the Anthrax attack letters were designed to throw suspicion on Saddam Hussein and connect the AQ threat to him, and thus justify taking the war to Iraq. And the MSM media and the Congress were put on notice that the Anthrax killer was targetting them.

So, when you look at what we know about the Anthrax Attacks, it seems that there are some specific questions that still need to understand:

When did the administration first begin to talk about anthrax with the media and congress?

Why has the investigation been so shoddy?

Why should we believe a government that is known to lie on important issues?